January 10, 2023

Governor Hochul’s 2023 State of the State Address

Governor Hochul delivered her second State of the State today before a joint Session of the Legislature in the Assembly Chamber in the State Capitol in Albany. In her remarks, which lasted for roughly one hour, Governor Hochul highlighted six issue areas:

• Crime and gun violence;
• Mental health issues;
• Access to affordable housing;
• Energy costs and climate change;
• Access to childcare services; and
• Indexing the State’s regional minimum wages to inflation with a cap and an “off ramp” in the event of certain economic conditions.

The Governor did not mention either skilled nursing or assisted living providers during her remarks. The Governor did highlight a proposal to establish 3,500 new residential units for New Yorkers with mental illness. Additionally, the only reference the Governor made to hospitals was during her remarks regarding access to mental health services, where the Governor criticized hospitals for receiving $27.5M in the FY 2022-23 enacted State Budget for expanding the number of beds available for mental health patients and failing to bring these beds on line. In the Governor’s printed State of the State briefing book entitled “Achieving the New York Dream,” the Governor includes a section (Section IV) entitled “Building a Health Care System for New York’s Future,” which includes, among other things, the following proposals:

• Establish quality reporting and accreditation for assisted living residences and implement quality improvement initiatives in nursing homes “to promote transparency and make it easier for New Yorker’s to make informed choices;”
• Establish a Commission on the Future of Health Care to, among other things, shape the allocation strategy of subsidies for financially distressed nursing homes and hospitals and health care capital;
• Require the DOH to launch an initiative to automate data reporting, reduce the administrative burden on providers, and provide greater flexibility to the DOH on the types and frequency of data collection;
• Advance legislation to require staffing agencies to register and report key data about their operations in an effort to increase transparency into the utilization and costs of contract labor;
• Expand existing transformative capital funding and establish a new capital grant fund to enable technological upgrades;
• Advance legislation to allow New York to join the Interstate Licensure Compact and the Nurse Licensure Compact;
• Require the DOH to review and amend the CON process, including raising the cost threshold for projects that need to file a CON, and revisiting the definition of “public need” used in the application process;
• Create a comprehensive plan to address excessive medical debt for patients, including (1) amending the Consumer Credit Fairness Act to cover medical debt; (2) launching an industry and consumer education campaign; and (3) requiring hospitals to use a uniform application form; and
• Establish a working group to recommend ways to expand access to non-emergency medical transportation.

As always, NYSHFA|NYSCAL will be sure to provide updates on these and other initiatives as the FY 2023-24 State Budget process moves forward. NYSHFA/NYSCAL CONTACTS: Stephen B. Hanse, Esq.` President & CEO 518-462-4800 x11
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